6-Reel Slots

Are you bored of those retro 3×3 and standard 5×3 reel online slots? Software providers like WMS, Playtech, and Microgaming, among others, have strayed away from the norm and added an additional reel to give you bigger games full of stacked symbols and a tonne of pay-lines to play on for a new type of experience.

What are 6-Reel Slots?

Over the years, there has been a move from the basic format of the five, three and seven-reel slots which software providers have consistently opted for, to the addition of a sixth reel (finally, an even number!). These not-so-basic 6 reel slots can take on several different shapes, the most popular being the 6×3 or 6×4 reel layouts, although WMS have switched things up with some unexpected staggered reels in their Real Boost games. This type of layout features hundreds, even thousands, of fixed win-lines, like the 720-pay-line, 243-ways-to-win and up to 4,096 pay-lines played ‘any way’.

More Symbols, More Fun

Your biggest advantage when playing on these large sized slots, is the volume of stacked symbols spinning before your eyes, particularly Stacked Wilds and Scatters and a whole lot of multipliers. This signifies bigger wins and more possibilities to trigger those special bonus features, like free spins rounds. Furthermore, with these slots lies the possibility of big 6 of a kind wins instead of the typical 5 of a kind. Even though they may come across as more complicated games, for some players, more complex means more entertaining. For those players who enjoy the more traditional 3×3 slots, 6-reel slots may fall a little far out of their comfort zones. But, before you dismiss them completely, just remember, more reels, mean more of everything else!

Popular 6-Reel Online Video Slots

There aren’t a lot of 6-reel games on the market, but here a couple which make use of the feature splendidly.

Zeus III is the third game in the series of widely popular Zeus slots by WMS. It bears an unusually shaped 6-reel slot using an ‘all ways’ format, meaning that you have to play on 192 fixed pay-lines. The reels are set in a pyramid layout, with the first reel having just two positions on it, and increasing by one every time you move towards the right, leaving the final sixth column with spaces for seven symbols. The online slot features several symbols from the previous two games along with some new icons thanks to the addition of the sixth reel. What makes the game so lucrative is the Zeus symbol which appears stacked, as are the other icons. A full reel of Zeus transforms into the Wild reel to give you some sizable wins. Their Red Flag Fleet slot also makes use of this pyramid shape grid layout.

Playtech’s Buffalo Blitz makes use of a sixth reel in a different way to the Zeus III slot. It has a 6×4 reel layout instead of the standard 5×3 adopted by most software providers. In fact, the addition of the extra reels gives you a grand total of 4,096 ways to win. The video slot offers high payouts up to six of a kind for each symbol, and the game’s prized symbol, the raging buffalo, of course, can appear stacked on all your reels! Six of this bad boy will award you 300x your bet. You can also rally up to 100 free games if that Scatter lands anywhere on reels 3, 4, 5 and 6 – the more Free Games symbols appear on your reels, the more free spins you win! Here you can see that the added reel gives you more chances to trigger the free spins bonus.

For those lovers of classic fruit machines, Novomatic has created 6 reels of fruity goodness in their hot Sizzling 6 slot. It takes on a 6×3 layout with just 5 fixed pay-lines in comparison to the other games described above which have win-lines ranging in the hundreds and thousands. You can get some massive payouts on those 6 of a kind wins, especially when you land a row of 7’s, which is the game’s highest paying symbol. Bonuses can be triggered at any time and with the added star Scatter symbol you can win up to 2,000,00 credits.